OpsLens Deck of 52 Most Wanted Post 9/11 Frontline Leaders
In 2018, as a spin-off and salute to the original 2003 deck of 52 Most Wanted playing cards, let’s honor post 9/11 frontline leaders here at home. Once a week, for 52 weeks this year, OpsLens will post a card highlighting one of the 52 Most Wanted Post 9/11 Frontline Leaders. You’ll learn the top facts about their business or organization, as well as why they made the list, which comes down to impact, scalability, health, and unique value proposition.
I encourage you to look for these weekly updates, share the card with your network, and support or buy the products and services they offer. See the 52 Most Wanted Post 9/11 Frontline Leaders launch story here.
3 of Diamonds | Rumi Spice
Rumi Spice Founders
The following is from the website of Rumi Spice:
Named after the 13th-century Persian poet Jalal al-Din Rumi, Rumi Spice partners with Afghan farmers to bring top-quality, sustainably farmed saffron to customers around the world. Founded in 2014 by a team of U.S. Army veterans (Keith Alaniz, Kimberly Jung, and Emily Miller), Rumi sources saffron from local Afghan farms and employs more than 1900 women in Herat, Afghanistan, to hand-harvest the delicate crimson stigmas of the flowers. Committed to empowering Afghan women and bolstering the country’s economy, Rumi reinvests back into agricultural and manufacturing infrastructure.
Rumi began with a mission to cultivate peace in Afghanistan, grounded in the belief that creating demand for Afghan agricultural products will catalyze rural economic development. Over 80% of the Afghan population is reliant on the rural agricultural economy. The success of the saffron industry not only helps farmers and the women providing direct labor, it touches every member of the village. In their second year, Rumi’s output from existing partners doubled and tripled, while new farmers asked to join the network. Rumi founders believe connecting Afghan farmers with the global market is key to unlocking the economic potential of Afghanistan.
And with hot, dry winds over semi-arid lands, Afghanistan’s agricultural region is ideal for growing saffron. In 2015, 2016, and 2017, the International Taste and Quality Institute of Brussels awarded Afghan saffron 1st place out of 30 competing regions. Rumi saffron is tested in accordance with ISO (International Standards Organization) protocol 3632 and surpasses the highest standards for Category 1 saffron by over 25 percent. Test results show that Rumi farmers are producing some of the world’s best saffron.
“When goods do not cross borders, armies will.” —Frederic Bastiat
Among the most prized spices in the world, saffron has a complex flavor that is both semisweet and slightly bitter. Also known as Red Gold, saffron comes from the interior of the amethyst-colored saffron crocus and must be hand-harvested due to its fragility. The flowers are taken from the field in the early morning as soon as they open and then transported to a facility where the three stigmas (attached to the crocus by yellow filaments called styles) are hand-separated from the blossoms. It takes 450,000 stigmas (or 150,000 blossoms) to make a kilogram of saffron.
Rumi was featured on Shark Tank (where Mark Cuban invested in them); is a Y Combinator Fellow; member of the American Spice Trade Association; won the Specialty Food Association Leadership Award; and, if that’s not enough, has earned certification as a B Corporation (an elite global community of 1,500 corporations in over 120 industries and 40 countries), a testament to the company’s commitment to social and environmental ethics, transparency, and accountability. From day one, Rumi was laser-focused on the “why” of their work. Mission and purpose are at the core of everything they do—economically empowering Afghan farmers, inspiring Afghan women through direct wages, and building out Afghanistan’s agricultural infrastructure.
Rumi partners with world-class chefs and Michelin-rated restaurants to bring the world’s best saffron to U.S. consumers, and offers a variety of other products (and recipes) from their website (check out the saffron gummies or tea).
Rumi Spice is a frontline leader that should be on your list of most wanted businesses to support in 2018.
Frontline Leader (Founder(s)): Keith Alaniz, Kimberly Jung, and Emily Miller.
Name of Company/Organization: Rumi Spice, founded 2014.
Location: HQ is Chicago, Illinois; saffron is grown in Afghanistan.
Post 9/11 Service Connection: U.S. Army (Kimberly and Emily graduated from West Point together in 2008, Keith is a Texas A&M Aggie).
Tours of Duty: All three served in Afghanistan: Kimberly did one tour as a route clearance platoon leader; Emily did two with the Special Operations Cultural Support Teams (CST). Keith also served in Iraq (as a combat engineer), and while deployed to Afghanistan he worked with Afghan locals and government officials as part of the Afghan Hands program in Wardak and Bamiyan (fluent in Dari).
One sentence tagline & mission statement: Cultivate Peace with the World’s Finest Saffron.
Website: https://www.rumispice.com/
“Drop by drop, a river is made.” —Afghan Proverb
